Columbus hospital blames electronic records for rising ER waits

11:53 AM,
Aug. 8, 2012

Written by

Kirk Johannesen
The Republic

COLUMBUS, Ind. - Patients' lengths of stay in Columbus Regional Hospital's emergency department doubled in late June during a switch to an electronic records system, and times are still longer than usual despite improvements, hospital officials said.

The emergency department, which had used a paper system for recording patient information, switched to an electronic system the week of June 24. The hospital, as a whole, is switching to a new electronic health records system to meet the requirements of the 2009 economic stimulus legislation, which provided incentives for using ...